First fertilization for river catfish in the North

With the technical assistance of Yen Bai Fisheries Department, Tran Van Phuong's family in Van Hoi commune, Tran Yen district (Yen Bai) boldly applied the method of artificial insemination for catfish, initially achieved positive results.

With the production of the same catfish by this method, Yen Bai became the first province in the North to succeed in this field.

Aquaculture Department of Yen Bai province sent some agricultural engineers to Phuong's family to carry out artificial insemination for catfish. After the mother catfish was injected with drugs to stimulate ovulation and artificial insemination, the eggs were put into the hatchery, the next day many eggs hatched into young catfish.

According to Phuong, the low rate of hatching fish is due to high ambient temperature, which affects fertilization. However, the proportion of fry that live after hatching is very high, reaching over 95%, and growing well.

Currently his family is rushing to build a cold room to ensure temperature and light during fertilization and incubation to increase the birth rate of young fish.

Phuong's family started raising catfish from June 2011 with nearly 4,000 breeds, so far the fish has grown very well, having a baby weighing over 3kg and starting to breed.

Normally, catfish only reproduce in the wild in rivers and streams and the hatching rate is not high and it is very difficult to reproduce in other environments.

Mr. Phuong said that during the process of raising catfish, the family found that female catfish should be spawned in pond. Mr. Phuong said that because the water supply system for ponds is similar to the natural environment in rivers and streams, catfish have spawned naturally.

His family has brought over 2km of water pipes from the forest to the pond, so the water environment is always clean and unpolluted, creating conditions for fish to grow quickly.